An after-hours club is suing Toronto Police for $23 million for what it considers an eight-year campaign of intimidation and abuse of power.

The Comfort Zone’s lawsuit alleges officers targeted the Spadina Ave. club because they wanted to close it down permanently after linking it to a drug overdose death.

Police launched Operation White Rabbit after a 26-year-old Hamilton man died of a GHB overdose on Jan. 28, 2008. Police believed he obtained the drugs while at Comfort Zone two days earlier.

Since Operation White Rabbit sprang to action — and continuing to this day — the Toronto Police Services Board, as well as the police force and its officers have “engaged in a series of actions” to shut down the club, the lawsuit alleges.

During a raid on the club on March 16, 2008, the lawsuit says “officers destroyed surveillance equipment, smashed electronics and communications systems and other damage.”

The lawsuit seeks $20 million in damages, $2 million in punitive and aggravated damages and another $1 million in exemplary damages.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Thirty people were charged in the raid, but no criminal charges were laid against club management. Some $35,000 was seized as proceeds of crime. But “these funds had to be returned” because no one could prove these were illicit profits, the lawsuit says.

After the raid, officers “repeatedly attended the club, harassed patrons and staff and encouraged them not to attend,” the lawsuit alleges.

On more than 50 occasions, officers entered the club, searched it and questioned patrons while “flashlights were shone in their faces and they were generally intimidated,” the lawsuit alleges.

“The Toronto Police Service should recognize that a segment of our population enjoys music, dancing and food after nightclubs and bars close,” the club’s lawyer, Barry Swadron, said.

“Comfort Zone takes special care to respect laws and procedures relating to safety and security. The last thing the Toronto Police Service should want is to force facilities like Comfort Zone to go underground to serve the after-hours community.”

Cops hit with club suit

An after-hours club is suing Toronto Police for $23 million for what it considers an eight-year campaign of intimidation and abuse of power.

The Comfort Zone’s lawsuit alleges officers targeted the Spadina Ave. club because they wanted to close it down permanently after linking it to a drug overdose death.

Police launched Operation White Rabbit after a 26-year-old Hamilton man died of a GHB overdose on Jan. 28, 2008. Police believed he obtained the drugs while at Comfort Zone two days earlier.

Since Operation White Rabbit sprang to action — and continuing to this day — the Toronto Police Services Board, as well as the police force and its officers have “engaged in a series of actions” to shut down the club, the lawsuit alleges.

During a raid on the club on March 16, 2008, the lawsuit says “officers destroyed surveillance equipment, smashed electronics and communications systems and other damage.”